


Electric

by starrystarrytrouble



Category: Open Heart (Visual Novels)
Genre: Boss/Employee Relationship, Eventual Romance, F/M, Public Display of Affection, Requited Unrequited Love, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Dancing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:42:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27151270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starrystarrytrouble/pseuds/starrystarrytrouble
Summary: What if the gala was Ethan and MC's first kiss?Rewrite of C17 gala on the super slow burn route, where MC and Ethan haven't kissed or hooked up before.
Relationships: Ethan Ramsey/Main Character (Open Heart)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 28





	Electric

Some days the electricity between them is so dangerous, she’s sure there’s no way she can come out of this intact. 

This is one of those nights. 

Because she’s done waiting. 

She chooses the dress with intent. It’s been in the wardrobe, packed in plastic, for an occasion like this. She thought he might invite her to the opera again when she bought it but he never has. 

Red. His favourite colour on her. 

She knows that because she wore a red silk blouse once and she caught him staring. Not that he would admit it, but his eyes sparkled and his lips moved a fraction apart. 

Matching her lipstick to the dress, scarlet, she curls her hair like an old Hollywood starlet. She feels renewed, like someone different, someone powerful and as she steps out of her bedroom, she knows, that for one night she is unmatched. 

Her friends are riotous, the tequila’s about to pop and the mood is light, the air heavy and thick with anticipation. The chatter around her drowned out by the quickening footsteps in the landing that matches the pace of her heart. 

The first thing he notices when he sees her is her eyes. 

Amidst the sea of glittering red, the rosy lips dancing in bewitching red, her green eyes gaze up at him and he recognises the something different that she feels. Instinctively he tilts his head, offering a question, a vague challenge and she matches it with her own tilt, a seductive slide of the lips.

_You’re looking…_

_Ready to represent the diagnostics department?_

She’s teasing him, he knows it, but there’s an undercurrent that makes him stir. 

They’re finally playing this game. 

He volleys back.

_I was going to say ‘beautiful’._

She quirks an eyebrow in response. 

It’s been two years of dancing around each other, stolen glances, and near misses. When he’s alone and awake and sky is inky and dark, he can’t sleep and he wonders what it’d be like to feel her nails rake down his back. He pictures her next to him, wrapped in his sheets, her breath at his ear. He reaches out to feel the warmth that isn’t there. 

He should’ve kissed her in Miami. 

He should’ve held her in his arms every single day of the last two years. 

He’s a cursed man. 

Her friends question him and he bats it away, his eyes still locked on her.

_We’re coordinating our efforts tonight._

_Dr Ramsey is right. We’re just…coordinating._

She emphasises the last word and he watches it fall off her lips, watches her so closely she notices and flushes the faintest shade of pink. 

He stares at her neck, the crest of her collarbone, the swell of her chest, all the places his mouth would fit perfectly.

The rest of the time before they leave is a blur. There’s tequila and her friends. He entertains them, banters easily, they all laugh. 

No-one notices the way they’re looking at each other. 

No-one but him. 

It’s been so easy to hide what they are, he thinks in the cab, because they’ve been nothing.

Boston flits past him, he rolls down the window to let out the heat and he basks in the streetlights, his face glowing with doubt.

Wasted time mounts up. 

He wishes he was unsure of how she felt, that would be a valid excuse, he would never cross an undefined boundary. But he knows, perhaps has always known, she’d dive into him in a heartbeat. 

The longer they’re apart, the easier it is to carry on, to not think about what ifs and question his motives. 

If he lost himself in her, they’d never come up for air. 

He slips his hand over hers across the middle seat. So involuntary and urgent that the warmth from her fingers interlaced with his startles him.

This is the furthest they’ve ever made it. Holding hands in the back of a car.

He feels her pulse through her thumb, and as if on cue, she notices, slides her index to his wrist and feels his own thundering along. 

Once they arrive, the night races on.

They drink, casually dance, the revelry cuts the tension and they spear their donors and seduce them with charm. When he catches their reflection in the windows he notes they make the perfect couple, he can’t deny it. 

Part of him hurts knowing that no-one around them suspects. They’re just colleagues. 

_Co-ordinating._

Maybe she didn’t suspect either, he’s played his indifference so well, that’s what’s taken them so long.

But then she looks up at him, her eyes utterly wicked, body captivating, every curve and breath enchanting, and he knows he’s caught. 

If he forgives himself for long enough, then maybe the longing can stop.

The whole night is a masquerade. 

And a part of him has had enough. 

They sit at the bar, and exhaustion that has set in disappears after his mentor leaves. The numbers don’t add up and the Diagnostics Team will soon be over. And he hates to admit it but he’s relieved, everything makes sense now, the mission lives on.

Another part of him is glad. 

_So what’s next for Dr Ethan Ramsey now that he’s not so ‘damn stubborn’ anymore?_

The music slows, the pianist playing a gentle ode and he feels his breath hitch and catch in his throat when he looks at the radiant glow on her face.

This is the chance to say it. 

After all this time, he can tell her how he feels. 

He feels his shoulders tense, his chest lift and his heart soar.

_I…the thing is, I’ve been meaning to…_

It rushes back.

Every small almost kiss, and opportunity he didn’t take, how he wishes he’d kissed her at his apartment, in the car after the memorial, in the ski lodge, every single place. 

For a second there’s nothing but the soft string quartet and the yearning that’s pulsing so deep he can feel it in his blood.

And then he remembers. 

Her. 

All of her.

_Oh to hell with it._

He cups her face, that first white hot streak of his touch sears and she gasps. She feels his lips on her next, urgent and desperate, an involuntary moan escapes and she leans in melting into his touch as he parts her mouth with his tongue until she’s completely out of breath. And yet she’s pulling him closer, her fingers fumbling with his collar until they’re completely enmeshed, and she feels everything in the moment, the rush of magic that courses through her veins and the entirety of him, all in the space of this one single kiss.

They break apart but she doesn’t move, her hands still entangled in his shirt. Her face vibrant, alive with surprise. She looks up at him astonished and the small ghost of a smile slides across his mouth where her lips have just been. 

“Wooooo”

“I knew it”

She hears her friends and turns around, they’ve drawn quite a crowd. 

That was some first kiss. 

Her thoughts collect and she realises no-one here knows that this is an exception, that they’ve never done this before. 

That’s part of the magic of falling in love with your boss from afar. Nothing happens except all at once. 

She looks up at him again. What made him crack right now, what’s so special about this moment, that he swept away his concerns. Tilts her head with curious eyes but his face is warm.

She thinks she might be addicted to him.

He offers up his hand and she looks down at the calloused palm.

_Shall we?_

She collects herself. Game face back on. She’s not going to admit she’s just been swept off her feet by the man who has pushed her away for 2 years straight. 

_I don’t know Dr Ramsey. I thought this wasn’t even a date._

_Just shut up and take my hand._

It’s getting harder to pretend when his hand reaches the small of her back and he looks at her like she’s precious, his eyes sparkling with adoration. She wants to hold back, scared he’ll change his mind, but as they start to dance, she knows that she can’t stop herself at all. 

She’s already fallen so hard, there’s nowhere left to go.

_I can’t believe you just kissed me like that. In front of the entire hospital…_

She tries to raise it like a challenge but the words slip out in awe. She replays the kiss in her mind, cherishing every second. It occurs to her, that they can’t go back now. 

And she runs over the thought.

If they’re not going back…then where do they go. 

_It just doesn’t feel like I have to pretend anymore._

The word pretend stings at first. Pretend what, she wants to know. Pretend that he hasn’t liked me, hasn’t felt the same way that he didn’t ignore the drive of his heart pushing him towards her every time he steered away? 

She wants to know everything. Every detail. When he fell for her. How long it’s been. If it feels an enchanting for him as it does for her. 

And she comes back to her first thought. 

There’s no going back. 

_That was a very public way to get over your concerns._

_It felt freeing didn’t it? There are some things crowds are good for._

He seems relaxed now, his voice low and warm and the slope of his shoulders so calm. She can’t remember the last time she saw him so…is that…happy. 

And she wants more. More of this.

More and more and more. 

_Then again there are some things crowds aren’t as good for._

She sees his eyes flicker as she says it and looks up at him with a sultry smile. He’s read the mood right and on cue, he takes the hint so deliciously that she breaks into a wider smile. 

_True…but that’s why they invented private offices. No need to pretend there. Or worry about who’s watching._

That current is back. The spark. The charge.

Danger.

His eyes are fixed on hers and she wonders if he knows how many times she’s fantasized about what’s about to happen next.

He gives her a look that’s so tempting, so _dirty_ , and she understands that he’s thought about it too. Bending her over the desk at every infuriating argument they’ve had. 

And they’re both thinking about it right now. 

She bites her lip and rakes her nails across his neck. 

She feels him shiver. 

She pulls away and leads him by the hand, a slight glance over her shoulder.

His eyes are completely dark, his mouth parted.

She feels her step quicken, as they race up the stairs, keeping pace with her heart. 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading. This was another experiment so on AO3 only. 
> 
> The rest of my writing is at @starrystarrytrouble on Tumblr.
> 
> \- Ruby


End file.
